Tackling Social Isolation Amongst Seniors with Intergenerational Engagement

Through an Age Inclusive Co-sharing platform, Nurtur. Nurtur empowers seniors to engage more within their communities, by creating a co-sharing network, and utilising residents' accumulated knowledge and interests to boost intergenerational engagement.

Client:

Industry:

Community Living

Later Living & Care

How might we boost community engagement across generations and shift people's perceptions of them, from being vulnerable to visible and highly valued?

> 50% of seniors in Camden stay in one-person households and 47% of London's working population are above the age of 50.

Opportunity 💡

We had the opportunity to understand and find resolutions for an increasing social isolation in Camden.

In partnership with Camden Council, we aimed to tackle social isolation amongst seniors, in more sustainable and long lasting ways. As part of a 6 months engagement, we spoke to a variety of age groups within Camden, deeply understood the challenges and motivations of various stakeholders, rapid prototyped, and created a hybrid service model to attain better integration in the community.

Process

  • Stakeholder insights and analysis

  • Service Ecosystem Map

  • Service Journey Map

  • Service Design Principles

  • Stakeholder Validations

Outcomes 📤

  • Landscape study

  • Stakeholder Interviews

  • Ethnographic research

  • Co-creation Workshops

  • User Testing

  • Business Partnership Discussions

Skills involved 📩

Understanding the Problem 💬

50% of seniors consider the TV to be their main form of company in London.

Many are ‘cut-off’ from society, losing friendships and access to basic services, specifically in Camden.

Stakeholder interviews and Ethnographic Research

We spoke to 100+ stakeholders from the Council, the Camden Older People’s Day Service, Nextdoor (a community app), seniors, youth over a few weeks.

We planned visits to retirement homes, such as the Age UK Camden retirement home for ethnographic research as well, to better empathise with the third age.

Lifecycle: Drastic transition towards isolation usually takes place at the point of retirement, where seniors experience a great loss of purpose.

Key Insights 📝

Transition from work to retirement can be detrimental and seniors often feel at a loss.

😟 Loss of self-purpose

After that stage, if they experience a familial loss, it becomes extremely hard for them to move past their grief and loneliness. They lose their motivation to build new connections too.

❤️‍🩹 Lack of motivation to mingle

If at some point, they experience a sudden fall, and lose the ability and energy they once had, it significantly reduces their ability to engage with others, even old friends.

🫥 Sudden ↓ in confidence

Current Support System: A senior’s social support network typically involves them, their families, their communities, social care services and the public, but there are several underlying issues.

Members of families are increasingly geographically dispersed and not able to take full responsibility of their elders.

👎🏼 Family: Loss of Kinship

“Only 46% of people 65+ spend time together with their family on most days”- Laurie, Camden Day Care Centre

👎🏼 Community: Lack Sense of Belonging

London has a higher rate of population churn, which creates a sense of isolation.

“The area I live in now has a more transient population, so there is no real sense of community compared to the past.” - Margot, Ex-lawyer

Social care service feels like a set of tasks to be delivered and there is no sense of control for seniors to make their own decisions.

👎🏼 Social Care: Lack of independence

“Many social care services don't treat seniors as normal adults. People can still make decisions, even with dementia.” - Brian, Manager at Age UK Camden

So what does our support network look like as we age?

Reutilise senior’s accumulated knowledge and interests to empower their social support network and enhance their sense of agency.

While speaking with many seniors, we were stunned by the abundance of experience they have. With all their years of work and living life, there was a missed opportunity to reutilise their accumulated knowledge by boosting community engagement across generations.

Opportunity: Prescribing People to People

To prevent seniors from feeling socially isolated and ensure a more sustainable ageing experience for them, we decided to start our intervention at an earlier stage, aiming to enhance their current social support network, "prescribing people to people".

Online Prototypes and Design Sessions for Nurtur with the Youth and Seniors

To understand what Camden’s residents truly needed, we prototyped the concept along with them.

We hashed out ideas, refined them and identified key moments that would make the experience impactful.

Welcome to a world where people don’t know you by your age, but by who you are, your experiences, your passion and what makes you, you.

Nurtur

Click ton video to play

Nurtur’s Touchpoints

Nurtur comprises of 4 touchpoint:

  1. Posters for public awareness,

  2. The Nurtur Pack for seniors

  3. The Nurtur Street Fair

  4. The Nurtur App

With the pandemic significantly increasing the adoption of technology and familiarity of communication channels, like WhatsApp and Zoom in seniors by 44%, we saw it as an opportunity to help seniors be more connected with their social support network.

Life with Nurtur

  • 1. Creating Awareness

    First, we will use local seniors, like Roger, as our ambassadors to create awareness about their hidden value!

  • 2. Nurtur Pack

    Then, residents like Margot, an ex-lawyer in her 70s, receives an email and a Nurtur Pack from her TRA (Tenancy Resident’s Association). It includes a leaflet to introduce her to Nurtur and its upcoming street fair. All residents of the community receive this.

  • 3. Nurtur's Resident Onboarding Street Fair

    Next, residents have the unique opportunity to co-design their community activities at Nurtur’s Street Fair. They will be able to share their skills and interests, such as Baking or Mentoring and see where they’d like to learn from each other in their neighbourhood.

  • 4. Nurturing Engagements with the Nurtur App

    The Nurtur App helps residents easily explore their neighbourhoods and stay in touch with the right people. Look for people with similar interests, or for advice from an expert when needed for career pathways, etc. Residents can either meet in person within their neighbourhood, such as cafes and stores or online, if preferred.

  • Being Rewarded

    5. Rewarded

    Residents who receive help can send a badge to others to show appreciation. As residents collect badges, they can exchange them for local business vouchers, flower seeds, or street fair tokens!

Inclusive connections with Nurtur

Everyone has a chance to engage with their communities, so for Joe and others who may be disabled and find it comfortable or easier to connect from their homes, an app, providing online chatting and video conferencing is available.

Appreciation and Sustainability through Rewards

Within the Nurtur App, a rewards system, allows residents who receive help to send a badge to others to show appreciation. As residents collect badges, they can exchange them for local business vouchers, flower seeds or street fair tokens.

Value based Ecosystem

In Nurtur's ecosystem, local facilities and businesses will become the new meeting hubs.

With increased brand exposure, local businesses will also provide more community-based events and discounts for Nurtur users as rewards.

Our source of funding comes from Tesco and Co-op. As active members of the community, they have community grants such as Bags of Help that we can apply for. Large chains like Starbucks, who have allocated budgets for CSR, would also benefit from collaborating with Nurtur. Camden Council will monitor and support the whole system.

Design Principles

Nurtur believes in being sustainable and provide a service experience that is community led and owned.

In the future, we would like it to run without much interjection, so as to provide a continued sense of purpose to its residents, especially seniors.

Our first Zoom session!

We believe that Nurtur will connect people and places for more collective growth in the long run, and build more resilient and independent communities in the "new normal" era, breaking traditional barriers.